In business, if one puts out a great product I think it is safe to say the chances for success go up.  That is not to say an organization will be successful simply because they put out the best of the best, and there are a number of pure crap products that have hit the market and managed to be successful, but having a great product is a solid differentiator.

Another catalyst for success is the community that supports the product.  

I am not strictly talking about the “consumer” but the hardcore support and believer in what is being marketed.  These are the people who create communities around a product.  Think about Apple and how dedicated the core user base is – there are forums discussing the products and developers create applications that are distributed to improve performance, all of which helps create a sense of excitement for what apple is putting out.

Then there are exceptional organizations that take it one step further – direct community involvement in development and wordpress.org is one such organization.

During the Wordpress 2.7 development process a contest was held, Project Icon, that asked designers to submit custom icons for the 2.7 admin interface, and then the user community was then asked to vote for the icon set that they felt most suitable for Wordpress 2.7.  

How cool is that? 

While having a superior product is one thing, the organizations that allow the “consumers” to impact future of the product – developers, artists, testing, users feedback that is listened to – only strengthens the image and future of the brand.

Nice job Wordpress!